


A Few of My Favorite Things

by ImagineAvengers



Category: MCU, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers
Genre: Endgame, Marvel - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:49:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26400679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImagineAvengers/pseuds/ImagineAvengers
Summary: What are Tony and Nat up to, now that they're all each other has?
Kudos: 2





	A Few of My Favorite Things

One of Tony’s favorite things ever was putting his daughter to bed each night. Even if they had gone through a terrible day and they were both putting Pepper through the torture of matching temper tantrums, bedtime would always be the part of the day he would look forward to the most. There had been far too many nights of late movies and snacks that shouldn’t have been allowed, leaving him to carry the limp and snoring little girl up to her room with a light step as to not wake her. Morgan slept just like her father; with one eye open for action and adventure no matter the detriment to sleep. Life was just too exciting for so much downtime.  
It would never get old, this view of the tiny little combination of him and Pepper. She was the best collaboration they had ever done, their finest work in years of pretty miraculous inventions and achievements. They all paled in comparison to this girl, and he had no problem giving it all up to have nights like this. He couldn’t care less about his legacy in the world other than what Morgan H. Stark would carry on for him if he did this part of his life right. 

He had to get this right.

“I love you 3000,” the little one murmured into her pillow, her mind dragging her into sleep despite her ongoing attempts to fight it. She always did that, even though she knew she’d never actually win the battle. Tony couldn’t help but laugh under his breath, recognizing so much of himself in her.

“3000? Still? Wow, that’s crazy,” he smiled to himself. “Love you too, kiddo.”

~~~

“Morning,” Nat greeted him the next day, stretching her arms high above her head with a satisfying yawn. “Did Morgan actually get to sleep on time for once?”

“Shockingly, yes. Pepper too. I may as well have not even been there for all they cared. They were out like a light before their heads hit the pillows.”

Natasha chuckled quietly, watching her friend as his mind went back to the night before, replaying the images he had seen like he was still there. She wasn’t sure how to say what needed to be said, but that had never stopped her before. This was different, however, and her sense of responsibility to Tony had grown exponentially in a matter of days. At least, she thought they were days. Time was a little messed up for her now.

“Tony, you weren’t actually there,” she said calmly, “they couldn’t see you, remember?”

“I know.”

“You sure about that?”

“Nat, give me a little credit. I know that we’re dead. I haven’t fully lost it yet. Although,” he smirked, “give it time. It’s only been a couple of days.”

“Okay, so it has been days,” she nodded eagerly, seemingly relieved that she still had that sense about her. “It’s already getting hard to tell how much time is passing. At least you have Morgan to act as a kind of time-stamp for you.”

When he looked back at her, Tony noticed something for the first time; she had lost her self-assuredness that he clung to for his own wellbeing. She looked smaller to him now, definitely quieter, and just…sad. When they had first found each other here she was the one to help him keep it together, as she had done for him countless times before, only this time he clung to her for his very existence, even if it was just a shadow now. Natasha kept him in check, and centered him within the most chaos he had ever found himself a part of. “Hey, you okay?” he asked, reaching out to touch her hand, frowning as his passed right through like nothing. “Sorry, I forgot.”

“It’s the thought that counts.”

“Hmm,” he murmured, chewing his lip in thought, his worried gaze focused on her intensely, “so, have you checked in on anyone else? What about Barton? Maybe seeing the kids would do you some good? Have you ventured out at all?”

“Um…no…n-not really,” she answered. “I don’t know, Tony…I don’t think I can.”

“Why?”

“I’m scared.”

Tony pushed back against his seat with a sharp breath held, feeling shocked, worried, and terrified to hear the truth he never expected from one of the bravest and strongest people he had ever known. Here he was, relying on her for his own stability when she was just barely maintaining her own. Now that he was taking the time to look at her, to really look with a trained focus, he could see it. Her last five years had been spent in devastation and a shroud of failure in losing her friends, and she never had the moment of relief when they came back. He had been there, seeing them all appear before his eyes with the help of Strange, and he had that moment to reconcile his grief. She had that stolen from her when she made her choice, giving them the ultimate gift as repayment for what she thought she had failed in protecting them from.

“Nat, it wasn’t your fault,” he spoke softly, this time hovering his hand just above hers in his best effort to hold it when he knew he couldn’t. “Natasha, look at me.”

“Tony-“

“No, just listen, okay? What happened five years ago with Thanos…none of us could beat him. We weren’t a team. We weren’t the Avengers that day, and that’s…that’s on me. Steve too, obviously, but let me own that. Not you.”

“You weren’t even on the same planet.”

“Yeah, well maybe if I had been we would’ve stood a chance. Together,” he smiled sadly, looking at their hands next to each other. With a quick breath to calm his still-present anxiety, he slowly pressed his hand down and into hers, making them one in his best effort to feel something as normal as the comfort of a friend. “Isn’t that what the old man said?”

“It was,” Nat whispered, almost to herself. “God, that feels like forever ago, doesn’t it? Remember those days? When global destruction was easier to stop? An army of killer robots sounds like fun compared to all of this.”

“Fun?” Tony scoffed. “You and I remember global destruction very differently.”

The two of them sat quietly after that, assuming that moments were passing by between them when neither of them were truly sure of how much time was actually being spent there. She couldn’t stop staring at their hands, trying desperately to feel the connection that he was offering. The two of them had been friends off and on for years, but there had always been a certain level of understanding and respect just below the surface, knowing that when the time came they’d have each other’s back. Neither of them even once ever expected that this would be their outcome and their eternity, but both had wordlessly agreed that it wasn’t so bad if this is how the story was to play out.   
If fate had to pick two Avengers to make the sacrifice play, it could’ve done a hell of a lot worse.

“The old man,” Natasha finally mumbled to herself with a hint of a smile curling at the corner of her mouth as her mind wandered.

“Hmm?”

“The old man,” she repeated. “You called Steve that even though he was literally the youngest on the team before Wanda came along. Sure, he was technically eligible for the senior discount, but that frost nap sure kept everything nice and tight.” 

“Oh, really?” Tony perked up.

“Hey, you’re the one who checked out his ass and announced to everyone that spandex ruined your view.”

“Ya got me there,” he shrugged begrudgingly. “He really is spry for an older fella. When I’m right, I’m right.”

Natasha cleared her throat nervously, letting in a little suspicion that she maybe knew something that she wasn’t letting on. She glanced around the room that had created itself around them, a near perfect replica of the compound at its best, when the team was whole and vibrant and filled with purpose beyond any personal agenda. It provided just the right amount of nostalgia to keep her spirits up, and just enough familiarity to keep her grounded to this new stage of existence. But this time as she looked around her, she finally began to feel at home again and had a moment to allow a little fun back in. 

“Romanoff? You’ve got that look in your eyes,” he pointed at her deliberately, a glimmer in his own fueling her mischievous side. “Spill it.”

“Tell me, Stark, is it scary? Visiting them?”

“No, not at all. It’s wonderful.”

“Okay, then I’ll give it a try if you come with me. I think there’s something that you’re gonna want to see.”

“Now I’m the one who’s scared,” he said, looking at her skeptically. “Where are we going?”

“Brooklyn. I might have taken a peek or two down there just to see how everyone was holding up without us, and Cap isn’t holding up at all.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think you’re about to change your views on spandex,” she laughed. “The old fella’s not as spry as you might think anymore. Gravity is the only enemy he’s fighting these days, and from what I can see from here, gravity is winning.”


End file.
